I've always found I performed much better once I stopped even bothering with reds

I think there might be some truth to that. I feel like when you get your units with tokens (even blue tokens, for me) they don't feel as valuable and I catch myself almost making mistakes with them more often. When I know I've gotten the units from constant activity, I'd hate myself for losing them.

I think though that there is a fine line between stopping boosting in order to improve yourself as a player, and doing it to the degree that it makes your experience much more difficult. I think the most-rounded players are able to achieve a solid balance, in that they don't at all rely on tokens but they aren't totally averse to using them